I don’t recall hearing anything like this.
As the captain had said, I succeeded in turning that woman into a saint.
More precisely, she awakened on her own.
But no one ever said that awakening as a saint would make her this powerful.
Yet that woman blocked my attack.
Twice, no less.
It was not as though I had never seen a saint before, but they were not like this.
At the very least, I had neither seen nor heard of a saint who had just awakened deflecting a Sword Master’s attack.
The holy power pouring from her, and the pressure she exuded, could not even be compared to that saint I met back then.
Did the captain lie?
Or is there something even he does not know?
This was becoming exceedingly irritating.
I had bound down two major players, so I thought this would be easy.
The spirit had died, and the fight had dragged on far longer than expected.
And above all else.
These two were the troublesome ones.
I looked at the pair blocking my aura blades with crimson and white sword aura.
Especially the woman who swung her sword toward me with an impassive expression.
Damn it all.
It was not just the name.
She resembled her.
She resembled her far too much.
Though she was a woman whose ability allowed no hesitation.
Though her martial prowess was the complete opposite of hers.
Though I knew that person was already gone.
She looked so much like her that I found myself hesitating to attack her.
Was this what they called the cruel joke of fate?
And the woman was one thing, but—
the biggest problem was the man standing before me.
A man who spread mana throughout his entire body to reinforce his muscles, like Orlando, and used Orlando’s techniques.
He did not have that sword.
But he was the very image of the Orlando I had seen then.
Despite being merely a Sword User, he was not pushed back even by my attacks.
To awaken the saint, he blocked every attack I directed at the brown-haired woman.
And against me, wielding this golden spear, he had ultimately unhorsed me.
The captain had never told me about anything like this.
I had never heard of a Sword User capable of facing a Sword Master head-on—much less one like me, who possessed a magic eye and the golden spear.
There was no way that braggart would not know of someone so exceptional.
Where the hell did he come from?
It was exceedingly irritating.
In a different sense from the woman, I could feel that this man was profoundly irritating.
His fighting style and the mana spread through his muscles reminded me of Orlando.
And the way he threw himself in front of attacks aimed at the woman, then defeated me in mounted combat even though I held the golden spear—
it was like watching that man again. It made me sick.
That strength, refusing to yield to a Sword Master despite being a Sword User.
If I left him alive, he would be an enormous nuisance in the future.
As I steeled myself, I raised my aura and killing intent.
Not for the organization.
I never held that much affection for it in the first place.
I only followed orders to the extent I was paid to.
I was not a worshipper who blindly believed in it, like that fool.
Nor was it for my own future.
Nothing was uglier than a ghost buried in the past worrying about the future now.
It was not for Katai, either.
It was a kingdom that had already fallen, a nation with no chance of rising again.
All that remained were idiots who wanted to run wild under the banner of legitimacy.
I had no intention of rebuilding it. It was nothing more than a leash to control those idiots.
This was simply for my own satisfaction.
It was likely because that bastard kept reminding me of someone I had once admired.
A coward who relied on weapons and gave up the moment he lost them.
A fool who went mad, casting everything aside because he was obsessed with a woman.
An imbecile who stubbornly clung to that ridiculous chivalry and drove his comrades into certain death.
I—
I hated knights like that.
I hated fools like that.
He boasted that he would save everyone.
Yet he could not save a single thing.
But.
Even so, you—
You succeeded in saving that woman.
The attacks I had put some genuine intent into.
All those attacks I had poured onto that woman.
You took every last one.
Unlike someone else.
You did not drop your weapon. You succeeded in saving the woman, and even defeated me in mounted combat while I wielded the golden spear.
Are you different?
Can you say that you are different?
Tell me, inheritor of Orlando’s will.
Can you rebuke the one who fled that day?
#
I see.
I had left her in Iris’s care just in case, but I never expected it to be this helpful.
Then what about Iris’s consciousness?
"Where is Iris?"
"Ah, I’m here."
What flowed from her lips was Iris’s voice, not the Holy Maiden’s cynical one.
"You may call it possession, but our souls have not merged. Think of it as two personalities coexisting within one body."
This time, it was the Holy Maiden’s voice.
How fascinating.
So rather than being up there somewhere, this woman would be settling into Iris’s body.
That was a little troubling.
I welcomed Iris’s power-up with open arms, of course.
But it also meant there was now someone right beside me ready to lecture me about chivalry.
I pressed down on my throbbing head and barely managed to calm myself.
It was not—
"Whew..."
—over yet.
Scaramuccia slowly stepped away from the wall where he had been embedded.
During our ferocious battle, his mask had cracked beyond repair and shattered into pieces.
This was my first time seeing his face without it.
Scaramuccia’s bare face had never been revealed in either the game or its art book.
With his mask gone and the upper half of his face exposed, he bore a peculiar resemblance to Angelica.
Was he Angelica’s secret older brother or something?
I drew my sword.
After that fierce battle, my sword was battered so badly that it seemed it would shatter if it struck anything even once more.
I sighed.
My stamina and mana had recovered to some degree.
My stats had risen far beyond what they were before, too.
But as befitted a Sword Master, my opponent was still going strong.
The rest of the party was not exactly fresh either, and now that his goal had been achieved, I had no idea what he might do.
And even if he could not use aura blades, he was still a Sword Master.
Besides, he had used nothing but basic skills so far.
Even if my boosted stats let me match him blow for blow, one of his ultimate techniques could still crush me.
"Holy Maiden, please help us."
I asked the Holy Maiden beside me for assistance.
"Has your Oath of Chivalry not ended yet?"
The Holy Maiden asked in return.
As if to prove that she was a Star bearing the epithet of the Holy Maiden’s Knight, there was no unpleasant insinuation that I was asking for help before the trial had even ended.
There was only concern over whether it was truly all right for me to ask her for aid.
"We’ve fought for too long."
Kafka, Isabella, even Prince Kyle.
Following my resets, they had repeated desperate battles across countless timelines.
But... even after fighting with every ounce of strength we had, all we had managed was to unhorse him.
We had not even confirmed what his true ultimate technique was.
We might have to die several more times just to see it.
Still, we could not keep this fight going forever.
And now that I had made a promise to Kafka, I could not die anymore.
"Those above will surely look upon it unfavorably if you hope for a stroke of luck."
"Even so, we can’t remain tied up in this fight forever."
Rather than being late—
this was better.
Isabella said she would fall with me, but—
we could not keep falling together forever.
"Of course I will fight alongside you, but please do not expect too much."
Iris lightly raised her flag as she continued.
"Perhaps because this is the first synchronization, its duration is short, and the amount of holy power I can use is limited."
"That’s fine."
It would be enough.
Then a countless barrage of attacks rained down upon Scaramuccia.
As I exchanged blows with Scaramuccia head-on and struck aside the trembling golden spear,
Angelica created a raging storm to throw Scaramuccia into disarray.
Sancho’s scythe and Rocinante’s torrents filled in Angelica’s assault.
And the Holy Maiden seized that opening, driving her flag in.
Scaramuccia could use his magic eye to negate Angelica’s and my attacks.
But Iris’s holy power seemed to be beyond even his gimmick’s ability to ignore, as he desperately dodged it, cold sweat streaming down his face.
That was not all.
A massive bolt of lightning fell upon him from above.
And frost swords surged toward him in numbers, as though determined to skewer him.
While Angelica, Iris, Sancho, Rocinante, and I engaged him from the front, Isabella and Dante chipped away at him from the side.
Kafka and Kyle, naturally, had withdrawn to protect Haede.
Their stats made it too difficult for them to withstand him at the front.
But.
Our opponent was a Sword Master.
Not only that, he was the boss of a forced-loss event and a rookie crusher.
As though proving those titles were no empty boast, he withstood every attack, all of which had become far more powerful than before.
Even as the saint’s blessing poured over the party like a waterfall, there was no sign whatsoever of him going down.
Still, one thing had changed from before: he no longer targeted Haede.
And another thing was...
that he was now directing every attack once aimed at Haede toward me instead.
With dogged persistence, he repeatedly thrust his golden spear without restraint, intent on killing me now.
Powerful thrusts filled with the will to pierce even the sun began raining down on me.
I could not understand what this man was thinking.
What reason could he have for attacking me so relentlessly?
Fortunately, the Holy Maiden was offsetting some of those attacks with her flag.
Angelica also leaped forward without hesitation. For some reason, Scaramuccia hesitated to attack Angelica, so escaping his offensive was not all that difficult.
Was this guy really Angelica’s cousin or something?
Still, unlike before, Scaramuccia was gradually being pushed back.
His gimmick rendered Angelica’s, Sancho’s, and my attacks ineffective, but...
Iris’s authority alone could bypass it.
And before long, his health would be whittled down to the target threshold.
That would do.
Our objective was never victory. It was to hold out until Professor Luke arrived and wear down his health.
But.
Was it because this was reality?
No matter how much health we took from him, Professor Luke showed no sign of coming.
"Never again—neither now nor in the future—will I be held back in a place like this. By Sword Users, no less."
Something I had never seen in the game happened.
"And yet."
Scaramuccia entered his third phase.
"...I cannot stop here."
Perhaps because we had beaten him senseless, he completely dropped that detestable first expression of his, the one that had been smirking all along.
What was this?
His third phase.
I had never seen his third phase in the game.
Before it could begin, Professor Luke had arrived and dealt him the final blow.
I took a breath and aimed Carnwennan and my sword at him, but—
I could not even react.
His next move was to raise the golden spear and hurl it.
The Holy Maiden managed to block the golden spear’s attack.
But he seized me by the collar and shot into the air.
He burst out of the library, flew through the sky, and slammed me into the ground.
One on one.
Angelica and Iris would rush over here quickly, but the problem was that my opponent was a Sword Master.
And I could not break his gimmick.
Then what choice did I have?
I had no choice but to hold out until Iris, Dante, or Isabella arrived.
Holding out was my specialty.
One on one.
In a duel that would end only when one person’s head touched the ground—
"Ian de—"
It was late, but before the duel could begin, I tried to give my name.
"Knights are like that."
Something cut me off.
Scaramuccia raised his golden spear, its glow dulled by dust and blood, and spoke.
"They are ugly. Knights, that is."
I did not know what sort of past he had, but—
he seemed to truly hate knights.
Then he raised his golden spear.
And opened his other eye, which had been shut.
That was right.
He had released his magic eye.
The magic eye that was both his gimmick and greatest weapon.
"Come."
Why?
"That ugly, childish dream of yours. ...Today, I will bury it here."
Why did he turn off his magic eye?
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register